Editor’s note: This recollection is excerpted from the film, “The ’62 Storm: Delaware’s Shared Response,” produced by 302 Stories. It was submitted by Denise Clemons of the Lewes Historical Society, who says, “At the time of the storm, Hazel Brittingham was working as secretary to the superintendent of the Lewes Special School District. She accompanied two school officials into Rehoboth Beach to help decide about school cancellations in Lewes.”
Two blocks away from the ocean, we saw a wall of water. I didn’t mean to, but I screamed when I saw it.
We still had school that first day of the storm, but it was canceled after that because school buses couldn’t get through on many roads because of flooding. Water came up in places it had never come up before. But when you think of what happened in Rehoboth, we thanked our lucky stars.
Stores along Savannah Road, just past the canal bridge, were completely surrounded by water. The high-tide mark remained on the concrete side of the stores for many years — as a reminder of the flood — in some cases as high as 4 to 5 feet.
Hazel Brittingham
Lewes
